Frozen in Montana
by ladylibra73
Summary: Ranger needs Stephanies help finding a skip in Montana.


Frozen in Montana

Ranger needs Stephanies help finding a skip in Montana.

**Chapter 1**

What a crappy day it was. I captured one skip and when I went to get another skip, he quickly ran out the door and stole my car. So I lost two skips today. Plus, it was raining. I called for a cab to drive me back to my apartment. I entered my apartment, went to my bedroom and changed into my pajamas, even though two in the afternoon. What else can go wrong today? I sat on my couch and closed my eyes. Then I heard a knock. I got up to answer it. It was Ranger.

"What could you possibly do to make my day better?"

"Catching a skip."

"No thank you. If you heard the latest, I captured a skip, I was apprehending a skip, he got away from me, stole my car with the captured skip in it, I got soaked and I had to take a cab home. So why would I want to catch another skip?"

"We would be working together. I can help you with your two skips when we get back. This one I really need your help on."

"Where is this skip?"

"Mountains of Montana."

"Montana! You have got to be joking."

"I am not. We leave at five in the morning, so I would start packing now and be in bed by eight. I already packed our belongings. All you have to do is put on the clothes in your closet and we will buy winter gear in Montana."

"Winter gear! How do you know he is in Montana?"

"A source of mine followed him."

"May I see his file."

Ranger handed her the file. The guys name was Robert Snow, 40, murdered several women in three states.

"Scary looking guy."

"Indeed he is."

Later that evening I was thinking of ordering out.

"I'm ordering something from Pino's, would you like something?" I asked Ranger.

"What? Oh, order me a salad." said Ranger without looking up. He was engrossed on the file on Robert Snow. Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door and Ranger quickly got up with his gun pointing at the door.

"Relax, our dinner is here."

I paid the guy a five and set our food on the coffee table.

"You can never be too careful. It could have been Robert."

"You said he's in Montana."

"Yeah, you never know."

I gave Ranger his salad and I joined him on the couch. He opened the lid to his salad without looking at it. He grabbed the plastic fork and stabbed some lettuce into his mouth.

"Wow, how do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Reading without looking at what your doing when you have food on your lap."

"Years of practice."

He closed the file and put it back in his duffle back.

"So we leave here at five, what time is our flight?"

"Six. So we have to leave here by five fifteen."

At seven, Ranger walked in the bathroom and took a shower. He wore a towel around his hips and put on his silk boxers

"I think it's time to go to sleep, have a busy day tomorrow." Ranger said getting into my bed. "You coming to bed or are you going to stand there all night?"

I turned off the lamp, got in bed and got under the covers.

"Night Babe."

"Night Ranger."

I was in a deep slumber when I felt shaking.

"Stephanie."

Then my name.

"Babe, wake up."

I opened my eyes to find Ranger standing over me.

"It's time to get up."

"What time is it?"

"Four. Go take a quick shower."

I quickly showered, dried my hair and got dressed.

"What time did you get up?"

"Three forty five."

"What time will we get to Montana?" I asked.

"Eight in the morning."

We were out the door by four thirty, earlier than expected. We drove to the airport in silence. All the houses were dark, sleeping, like I should be doing. We arrived at the Newark Airport just in time to board. We were seated in first class. The flight would be six hours. Forty five minutes in the air, breakfast was served. When I was done with breakfast, I looked out the window and fell asleep. I was awakened a few hours later.

"Babe. We'll be landing in twenty minutes."

I stretched and wiped my eyes from sleep. We walked out of the plane and we waited ten minutes for our luggage to come out of the plane. When we got our luggage, we waited outside.

"Are we waiting for someone?" I asked.

"Yes. His name is Richard. He will be taking us Big Bear Billings and then to Red Lodge Hotel."

"What is Big Bear Billings?"

"There we are going to get our winter gear."

Then a big black SUV pulled up to the curve. A heavy set guy walked over to Ranger.

"Ranger, how good to see you." the guy said hugging him.

"How are you Rich?"

"Very well. I see your doing good."

"I am. Rich, this is Stephanie Plum. She will be helping me find this guy. Stephanie is a good friend of mine Richard Crowe.

"Nice to meet you." he said shaking my hand.

"Same here." I said smiling.

"Well, shall we go?"

Ranger put our bags in the back. Ranger sat in the front seat, I sat in the back. We stopped at IHOP for breakfast. There were a lot of people. We were lucky we were seated right away. I noticed the people behind us had to wait a while. I couldn't wait, I was starving. The first thing I noticed was the chocolate chip pancakes. I ordered that. Richard had the big steak omelette, Ranger had a wheat bagel. When our food arrived, I dug into my pancakes. I moaned at the first bite. Both men were looking at me. When we were done with breakfast we went to Big Bear Billings twenty minutes later. We bought boots, coats, anything that will keep our bodies warm. Half hour later, we left the store and on our way to Red Lodge Hotel. When we got there there were three cabins. Ranger and I got out of the SUV and into the office. He paid for the cabin and we left the office.

"We are staying in these?" I asked.

"Yes we are."

The cabins were beautiful. When we walked in, the room took my breath away. There was ceiling fan, a loveseat with two chairs beside them in the middle of the room, a flat screen TV above the gas fireplace. The right side of the wall was a black leather oversize sleeper sofa. Fully equipped kitchenette with a stove. Upstairs was a separate king bedroom with a flatscreen TV, a loveseat under the window. A spacious bathroom with a skylight, separate mirrored vanity area with two sinks. This place is beautiful.

"I already love this place." I said sitting on the bed.

"Don't get used to it."

"Sleeping arrangement."

"We both can sleep on the bed. We're both adults." said Ranger. "This place also has an indoor pool, hot tub, excercise equipment, which is good for me."

"Hot tub sounds good to me. I'm going to try it out."

"I'm going to check out the excercise machines."

At 11, I put on my two piece red bikini and checked myself out. I had a hot body. I put on my shorts and shirt and was on my way to the other building to check out that hot tub. When I got there, it was out of order. Drat. So much for that. I guess the pool was working. I took off my shorts and shirt. I heard Ranger come in. He was shirtless with just his shorts and sneakers. We made eye contact and I was sure drool was coming out of his mouth. I jumped in the water. I didn't want to start drooling myself. It would be embarrassing if he saw it on me. I watched him do weights. I loved how his muscles moved. Fifteen minutes later, he moved on to the treadmill. I loved his body. I loved those muscles, his amazing abs. I was staring again. I went underwater. When I came up for air, he was gone. He came out of the mens room wearing his black swimming trunks. I watched him dive in. He swam underwater toward me. He finally came up for air.

"This water is real warm." said Ranger.

"It's probably heated. Did you have a good workout?"

"Yes I did."

He was swimming closer to me. He was close enough now to kiss me.

"So what time do we leave to hike up the mountain?" I asked breaking his trance.

"Eight a.m. Get up at five, eat breakfast at six, pack up what we need at six forty five and should be ready by seven forty five."

"How long is it going to take to find this guy?"

"Not long, one day probably. Why do you ask? You have a hot date?"

"No. Looking for a skip high up in the mountains in the cold isn't my idea of fun."

"It has to be done. He killed a lot of women and I don't want you to be next." Ranger said taking his hand in mind. We were about to kiss when a door opened. I quickly moved away.

"How is the water today?" a white haired man asked.

"It's very warm." I responded.

"Great."

I watched Ranger swim away. I got out of the pool, put the towel around me and left the building.

When I was done in the bathroom, Ranger came back to the room. He grabbed his clothes and went to the bathroom to change. I looked in the cabinets for something to eat. It was after twelve, so I was starting to get hungry. I looked in the freezer. There were hamburger patties, pizza, chicken alfredo. I decided to heat up the pizza. I looked in the fridge. I did happen to find a bag of salad. Perfect for Ranger. A few minutes later, Ranger came down. I handed him his salad.

"Thank you." he said.

We sat down and ate together. I got up and got two bottles of water. He brought out the file and looked it over again.

"Do you know exactly where this guy is on this mountain?" I asked.

"It's not a very big mountain. He'll show up."

Ranger noticed a worried look on my face.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you. You're very important to me." Ranger said putting his hand on mine.

An hour later, I sat on the loveseat and turned on the TV. I had to watch something to take my mind off the skip. I found a comedy, Weekend at Bernie's. Nearing the end I fell asleep. When I awoke a couple hours later, I had a blanket over me and Ranger sitting at the other end working on his laptop.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Five. You slept a while."

"I guess I was that tired."

An hour later, Ranger made chicken stir fry.

"I think we should make it an early night tonight. In bed by eight."

I went to the bathroom to change into my tanktop and shorts. Ranger put on his silk boxers. When I walked out the bathroom, Ranger was in bed.

"Night Babe."

"Night Ranger."

I tried to stay close to my side of the bed so we weren't touching. I had a hard time falling asleep. I looked at the clock, ten thirty. I looked over at Ranger. He was fast asleep.

**Chapter 2**

I woke to shaking and then my name.

"Time to get up Babe."

I sleepily walked in the bathroom to take care of business and I showered. I put on jeans and blue turtleneck. When I went downstairs, Ranger had breakfast ready. He had a wheat bagel a box of cereal sitting on the table, Rice Krispies. We ate in silence. When we were done, cleaned up. By seven, we got things ready. Ranger packed a lot of weapons in one bag. We did a final check at eight and walked out the door. The day was cloudy and snow was expected later in the day. Great. I hope it came later when we captured our guy. We got into a cab and we were on our way. The cab driver dropped us off at a campground and walked from there. It took an hour to reach the top of the mountain. It was a little rough. I noticed it was starting to snow. I had a hard time keeping up with Ranger. He stopped to see how I was doing and then continued on.

"Do you know where you are going?" I asked.

"Yeah, we keep heading straight. Are you doing ok?" he asked.

"I'm just great."

We walked several more steps when we heard a gunshot. We were standing in the wide open, no trees to cover us.

"Hopefully that's just a hunter. Let's try to keep moving." said Ranger walking slowly.

The snow was heavily coming down and the wind started to pick up. We continued walking when another gun shot sounded. Ranger fell to the ground. There was blood on the snow.

"Your hit!" I said getting on my knees.

"I got hit in the shoulder." he said.

I looked around shelter, but then I noticed a log cabin. It seemed so far.

"I see a cabin. We can make it before this storm gets any worse."

I easily helped him up. We didn't hear any more shots, so hopefully the person or persons were gone. It was probably Robert. In twenty minutes, we made to the cabin. I opened the door and got Ranger in. I set him on the bed and closed the door. I took off his coat and sweater. He was bleeding a lot and his shoulder didn't look good. I found a towel to stop the bleeding. I looked around for a first aid kit. I found one on a shelf. I opened it and it was fully stocked.

"Is there an exit wound?" asked Ranger.

"No there isn't."

"You're going to have to take it out."

Ranger reached down and took out his knife.

"Take this. Your going to have to dig and get the bullet out."

"I can't do that."

"You have to." Ranger handing me the knife. "I've been through this before."

I twisted the knife into the wound. Ranger squinted. The wound was open enough so I could see. I found the bullet and it easily came out. Ranger looked like he was going to pass out. He was also sweating. I opened the little bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide. I dripped a little by little on the wound. I found a wash cloth to wash the blood off of him. I bandaged his shoulder easily. I looked in my bag for ibuprofen and bottled water. I handed him two pills.

"This will keep your fever down." I said.

"Thanks."

"I'm going to get wood for the fireplace." I said.

I found tons of wood for the fireplace. Whoever lived here before, left plenty of stuff behind. I brought in eight louds of wood in. I searched drawers for matches and found some. I lit several matches for fire.

"It will be warm soon. You should lay down and rest." I said putting the blanket over him.

"Thanks for taking care of me." said Ranger

"You would've done the same thing for me. I'm going to see what there is for food."

Ranger took my hand.

"Stephanie, I love you."

I was wondering if that was true or not. He was probably delusional. I looked in the cupboards to find food. I found canned goods. Beans, corn, green beans, fruit. I did find rice in a small canister.

"How about some rice and corn."

I turned around and Ranger was asleep. I opened up the can of corn. I hope the stove works. A few minutes later, I was eating corn and rice. I made enough for Ranger when he wakes up. A couple of hours later, Ranger woke up.

"How are you feeling?" I asked feeling his forehead.

"Good. I will survive."

"Are you hungry? I kept this warm." I said giving Ranger a bowl.

"Thanks." he whispered. We locked eyes.

"I need to get more wood for the fire before night comes."

"Have you slept at all?" he asked when I came in with the second load.

"No I haven't."

"Why don't you get some rest and I'll take care of things."

"No you can't. You don't want to reinjure yourself. You need to rest and keep your strength up in case that guy shows up."

"I'm not that helpless. There is plenty of wood here. Take a couple hours of sleep."

"Ok. I don't want you getting any wood."

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.

I stared at Steph as she was sleeping. She really did a good fixing my wound. When she touched me putting on the bandage, I felt electricity go down my spine. She also made me feel good inside. Was I falling in love with her?

**Chapter 3**

A couple hours later, I heard her waking up.

"How long have been asleep?"

"Two hours."

"Let me your wound."

"Still the same. You will need to see a doctor when we get out of here."

I sat down beside him in front of the fireplace as I put more Hyrdogen Peroxide on his wound and put a clean bandage on. I looked at his back and I noticed scarred slash marks on his back.

"You know, some women think scars on a guy is awesome, but I think it's sad. How did you get these scars?" I asked lightly touching them.

"A few years ago I captured in Columbia. I woke up in a dirty cell, tied to the wall. I tried to get the ropes loose when they walked in my cell. They wanted to know who I was and where I came from. I wouldn't tell them. So one of the men turned me around and whipped me."

"Stop, you don't have to go ant further."

"Just let me finish."

"The leader whipped me fifteen time. I passed out after ten times. They did the same thing for two days."

Tears were starting to form as he took my hand and we sat face to face.

"I managed to escape while they were sleeping. I managed to get the rope loose and walked out of my cell. I was in the hospital for two weeks. I was dehydrated, cuts on my back that really needed attention. I was in bad shape, but I got better."

Ranger wiped the tears.

"Don't cry."

"You almost died."

"I survived." Ranger said putting his hand on my cheek and looked deep into my eyes. We kissed. His lips were soft and inviting. Then he deepened the kiss with passion. The wind howled loudly and I jumped.

"I need to get more wood for the fire." I said quickly getting up. My lips were still tingling after that. I brought in eight loads. Ranger made supper. This time he put vegetable in with the rice. We sat on the loveseat in front of the fire.

"Are you cold?" he asked.

"I am a little."

"We can share this blanket."

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

He felt a little warm so I gave him more Ibuprofen.

"Why don't you put your legs on my lap so your comfortable." said Ranger.

When we were done, I put the bowls on the counter and joined Ranger.

"Babe. I need to tell you something and I have wanted to tell you this for some time now. I love you. I have loved you since day one. You don't know how good it feels to be near you, to be touched by you. I'm in love with you, Babe. Ranger said stroking my neck.

"Are you feeling ok? Do you still have a fever?"

"I'm feeling fine and I'm thinking clearly. I just want to know how you feel about me."

"I feel the same way."

As our lips met, there was no stopping. I hoped what he was saying was true. He still felt warm. His hands went under my shirt. He unsnapped my bra. He caressed my breasts as the kissed deepend. I took my sweater off, then all of our clothes were off. We made love. He felt so good inside me. His breathing was getting heavy as we both climaxed. He lay beside me and we both fell asleep.

I woke up with the sun shining through the window. The storm was over. The fire was out and the cabin was cold. I woke Ranger up and put on my clothes and he did the same. I changed his bandage. The wound was looking a little better. We ate the rest of the rice. After that we gathered all of our belongings and walked out the door to look for our skip. A few steps from the door, the window shattered.

"Quick, get back in the cabin." said Ranger.

Then another shot rang out and Ranger fell to the ground.

"Ranger!"

"Leave him. Your coming with me."

I turned around. It was Robert Snow.

"I'm not leaving him here, he'll die."

"That's the whole idea. I didn't get him the first time, maybe this time I did. Let's go."

Robert grabbed me. I tried getting out of his grasp, but he too strong. Then I heard another gunshot. It hit the wall of the cabin.

"Hold it right there Snow."

"Who's there?" he asked looking around.

"Let the girl go."

"Show yourself."

"Put the gun down and I will."

"How do I know you didn't put down yours? Show yourself." he said.

A figure stepped out of the trees. It looked like Tank. He had his arms raised.

"Let the girl go." Tank said.

"No, she's coming with me. You follow us, she dies."

Then I heard a bang and the man dropped so did I. He got shot from behind. I turned around and saw Ranger with the gun is his hand. I ran over to him.

"You ok Bomber?" asked Tank.

"Yes, but we need to get Ranger to a hospital." I said.

An hour later, Ranger was taken to the local hospital. Tank and I were waiting in the hallway for Ranger to get out of surgery. A few minutes later, the doctor arrived.

"How is he?" I asked.

"Very good. The surgery went well. He got shot on the side, the bullet went through, so nothing vital was hit. The wound to his shoulder is healing. Whatever you used, you did a good job."

"May I see him?"

"He's in his room. It will be a while till he wakes up."

"I don't care."

"Go on ahead."

Tank and I went in. I walked to the side of the bed. He was sleeping peacefully.

"I will leave you two alone."

I took his hand.

"I thought you were going to die out there. I think you have more than nine lives. Anyway, you shot and killed Robert. So he won't be killing anyone anymore. You know, I really hope you were serious about what you said in the cabin last night. Do you really love me or what it the fever talking? I sat on a nearby chair and fell asleep.

I was trying to wake up from a deep sleep. I could hear Babe's voice from a distance. I couldn't quite hear what she was saying. I tried opening my eyes, but they wouldn't open. I know I was in the hospital. I finally got my eyes to open. I noticed Stephanie was asleep in the chair beside me. She had a hold of my hand. The pain on my side was burning. A nurse came in.

"How are you feeling?" she asked checking the bag.

"I am in pain, but I would like to wait. I have something I have something important to tell her."

"She's been there all night from what I've heard. Let me know when your ready."

After the nurse left, I caressed Babe's hair. She stirred, rubbed her eyes and sat up.

"How are you?" I asked.

"In pain, but I will survive."

"Let me go get the nurse."

"Wait. There is something I need to tell you."

"I was serious last night. I really do love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me? I haven't taken any medication yet, but I will need to in the few minutes."

"Yes I will marry you."

We kissed.

"Congratulations. Are you ready for your medication now?" the nurse asked.

"Yes, now that I've said what I needed to say."

A week later, we flew back to Trenton. I moved in with Ranger and we got married a year later.


End file.
